European Union leaders are warning that Russia could test the bloc's readiness to defend itself within the next three to five years, calling for an increase in defense budgets and deepen military cooperation among member states.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia is posing an existential threat to the European Union's security and to only way to address that is to increase spending on defence, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday, adding that the EU had for too long offered Russia alternatives.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his ally in neighbouring Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, have sought to weaponise migration by pushing thousands of migrants brought from elsewhere in the world over the EU’s borders in an effort to fuel support for anti-immigration far-right parties.